About the Shelter

Hound Heights is located just off the Pan-American Highway - at Km 40, between San Lucas and Chimaltenango - close to the village of Sumpango Sacatepéquez - very handy for the spectacular kite flying on All Souls Day (1st November). This is Guatemala’s Central Highlands, and the farm is about 2300 metres (7500 feet) above sea-level. Although we are only 14° north of the Equator, it gets cold enough for a touch of pre-dawn frost during the winter at this altitude.

The Shelter sits astride a ridge, nestling amongst woods and the tiny fields of maize and beans of the local Kakchiquel Indians. It’s a very peaceful spot, and listening to the whippoorwill at night it’s hard to imagine that these apparently gentle hills and valleys owe their steep inclines and jumbled configuration to terrible seismic convulsions resulting from Guatemala’s situation on the junction of no less than three tectonic plates.

Most of the property is quite steeply inclined, making for energetic outings for both dogs and humans! With the combination of exercise and mountain air recuperation is rapid, and it is extremely gratifying to watch a cringing, hairless, scabby skeleton transform itself into, for example, an English Sheepdog with a luxurious coat and a keen interest in bounding through the woods, in just a few weeks.